Admission Options

Da Vinci Explorer Pass = Best Value
Includes access to all of the Air Zoo's aircraft, permanent exhibits, rides, 4D theater experience, and full-motion flight simulators, a 20% discount on all Smithsonian merchandise in the Fly Buy Museum Store AND full access to the Air Zoo's amazing new exhibit Da Vinci: The Exhibition, which takes guests of all ages on a thrilling interactive and hands on journey through the life, inventions, and art of Leonardo da Vinci!

Additional Attractions:Tigers: Tracking a Legend - Visitors engage their senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell as they track a mother tiger and her two cubs through a collection of multi-sensory exhibits that highlight the physiology, behavior, and daily lives of these amazing animals.

The Air Zoo always needs volunteers! If you would like to volunteer your time, contact us!

Fairchild PT-23 Cornell

The Fairchild PT-23 Cornell is one of the most ambitious restoration projects taken on by the Air Zoo. Staff and volunteers invested thousands of hours and more than eight years to restore it.

The PT-23 is based on the PT-19. It was intended to fill a number of training roles-basic civilian training, government primary pilot training and basic instrument training.

Design/Development

The design of the PT-23 allowed a wide track landing gear, which would help prevent ground looping so often seen in the Stearman Kaydet and N3N Yellow Peril. With the "duramold" process for molding plywood and early plastic, flight surfaces of the plane were smooth and had a seamless appearance. Some mechanics have been known to say, "Rebuilding a Fairchild center wing section is a post-graduate course in aircraft woodwork." Extensive work was done to design the trainer to behave predictably and hold up to novice pilots' abuse.

Special Features

The standard PT-23 instrument panel contained a typical array of instruments for its day: airspeed indicator, compass, clock, engine gage unit, tachometer, turn and bank indicator, and rate of climb indicator. The Air Zoo's PT-23, however, also has an artificial horizon (front only), transponder, loran (navigation radio and instrument), transceiver, circuit break panel and a battery box.